


Just A Lot Of Medical Jargon And Surprise Lies

by TheTimelessChild0



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Desperation, Embarrassment, Friendship, Urination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21501736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTimelessChild0/pseuds/TheTimelessChild0
Summary: Ittechnicallywasn't the coffee. Which is fine, Jared prefers tea anyway.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Just A Lot Of Medical Jargon And Surprise Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I use way too many fancy medical terms for me to make any sort of dictionary. So, just google the ones you don't know *shrug* 
> 
> Enjoy

Shaun entered the operating room. He took a deep breath. One thing he liked about operating rooms was how quiet they were. And organised. Every type of sharp, intimidating equipment was placed in the centre around the patient on the table. 

He grabbed a scalpel and started opening up the patient. He accidentally made a small cut when he felt a sensation. He knew what it was at once. It originated in his bladder. Judging by his day, it contained 1 and a half glasses of orange juice, 2 glasses of water and a cup of coffee from the 6 AM clinic shift. He’d gone in the morning, but the dehydration from working meant some got saved for later. Or rather, saved for this very surgical procedure. 

“Careful, you don’t want to hit a major artery,” Claire reminded him. She knew not to chastise with a sharp tone as he was quite sensitive, and didn’t know the difference between angry and worried when addressed like that.

“Sorry,” he apologised. 

Shaun was about to quickly grab himself under the table, but then remembered that he was only wearing a sterile operating gown down to an inch beneath his midsection. In other words, he was potentially contaminated below the waist. So, instead, he opted for a small downward movement using his vertebrae, bringing him 20 degrees closer to the table for a fraction of a second. Which in turn, forced his sphincter muscles to contract inward, soothing the surrounding nerves. 

“It’s ok,” Claire assured him, putting a coagulant on the small incision.

Carrying on with the procedure was difficult, not just because of the earlier incident. While one hand was rested on the table, the other was veritably shaking while holding the knife. 

Claire took it out of his hands, sneaking a curious glance at the manner in which Shaun was moving. He was shuffling along the ground. In a very standstill situation, not entirely unusual. But his legs never lifted from the ground. It was as if such a motion would hurt him. 

“Are you okay?” she asked. 

Shaun didn’t answer. 

Part of Shaun’s added responsibility in the OR was an agreement with Claire, that she would only ask him questions during surgery. He didn’t like questions, but he surrendered due to the time-sensitive nature of operations.

Claire guesses he had too much coffee and was hiding it, in case she told Grossman, who was his unofficial parent before the hospital, now his boss and real-life guidance counsellor of sorts.

“Too much coffee?” she checked with Shaun. Shaun nodded then shook his head. The part of him obsessed with factual and scientific accuracy fought the part that didn’t want Claire to know what was really going on. 

The rational part of his brain argued that it wouldn’t be a problem if he excused himself. Claire was a friend. And the room was well staffed with competent surgeons. But Shaun’s self-conscious side refused the embarrassing circumstance of sharing that with his colleague. It wasn’t the same as with his brother. Plus, Dr Reznik would be the one who took his place. 

While their rivalry had died down, and she had learned not to let her arrogance get in the way of responsible medical care, he didn’t trust her that much yet. And this was a gallbladder removal. There was a 30% chance that they would find an equally infected or impacted appendix, and remove it simultaneously. He wasn’t leaving 30% to “Morgana” Morgan. 

“What does that mean? Yes or no?” Claire questioned. 

“You need to continue with the surgery,” Shaun stated. 

Claire did so, until she saw him mumble in a way that resembled a whimper, waving his hands like he did when arguing with himself about a diagnosis. She did something she almost never did to him; touched his arm. 

“Shaun, I can tell something’s bothering you. I want you to talk to me about it,” she encouraged. She avoided the word “tell me” to be less accusatory. 

“Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine” Shaun quickly lied, pretending to observe the surgical tools. 

Claire was taken aback. Shaun never lied. They were good enough friends, at this point, that Shaun felt comfortable sharing stressful moments he had at work or at home. Occasionally he would share only the simplest version of events; hiding the underlying issue or struggle, if it hurt him to think about, but that was more a case of hiding information, not fabricating it. 

“Look at me,” Claire requested, kindly. Shaun met her eyes. “What’s the problem?” 

Shaun picked up his therapeutic scalpel, rubbing it vigorously. His pons sent a signal to his bladder, telling it to open. The internal urethral sphincter opened about 2mm wide, before Shaun blocked the leak from exiting, by crossing his legs. He could feel a small spurt trapped in his urethra. He knew he had to act fast. 

“Ehm..I..I..I have to go comb my hair,” was his stuttering excuse. He hurriedly removed his hat, mask, storming out of the room. 

* * *

He ran into Jared on the way. But Shaun barely noticed him. Instead, his eyes fell to a table with wheels with medicine on the lower shelf, and nothing on the top. He slapped his operating gown on the table. 

“What’s up Shaun? Where are you going?” Jared pondered, looking puzzled at Dr Murphy, nervously power-walking down the hall, nowhere near a patient room, nor his office.

“Medical emergency!” Shaun exclaimed. 

“What kind of medical emergency?” Jared asked, thinking it was about a patient. Finally locating a toilet, Shaun ran inside, and slammed the door. Jared reached the same door, and immediately understood. “Oh, right. Bathroom emergency,” he smirked in amusement. 

The bathroom had two stalls, so for the sake of habit, Shaun slammed a stall door shut as well, unzipping himself as fast as possible. He allowed himself some medically supported bodily gyrations, to make it more difficult for his muscles to unclench again. At least, that is until he got himself aimed and ready. Then he stood in the most spread out, geometrically aligned stance as possible, leaving no strain or burden on his body’s process of relaxing all muscles for elimination. He moaned in relief. 

****

Outside, Jared listened. The way his colleague had darted inside the bathroom with haste, was both rare and hilarious. He chuckled at the noise coming from inside. He shook his head at the length of time Shaun had retained his urine, and walked onwards, to avoid being caught right outside. 

* * *

Melendez was eating his lunch peacefully, when Claire took a seat across from him. 

“Have you noticed anything off about Shaun?” she asked. 

“No, he seemed fine this morning. Why?” Neil stated, raising an eyebrow.

“We just did the gallbladder removal operation, and Shaun lied,” Claire explained. 

“He lied? About what?” Dr Melendez didn’t get it, why she seemed worried. 

“He was acting restless and nervous, and clumsy, during the surgery. He cut into the patient by accident. That’s never happened, even while Grossman had his cancer treatment. I asked him what was wrong, and he lied to me,” she retold. 

“Said there was nothing wrong,” Neil presumed. Claire nodded. 

“He’s never lied to me before. I’m guessing you can believe that too,” she guessed. 

“Yeah, he doesn’t seem neurologically capable, but what do I know..I’m normal,” Melendez remarked. 

“I’m really worried about Shaun,” Claire stated. 

  
At the utterance of the word “Shaun”, Jared walked by their table. 

“Why? What’d he do?” he asked, interested. 

Claire explained the events in the OR. 

“Oh right. That’s what he’d been doing. Slipped my mind,” he noted, getting some background for his meeting with Shaun. 

“You ran into him?” Claire asked, eyes wide with the hope of an explanation. 

“Yeah, in the hallway. He’s not just fast when there’s a patient in trouble. Also when he’s in trouble,” Jared remarked with a chuckle. 

Claire rolled her eyes at him. “Where was he going?” she asked, insistingly. 

“To the bathroom. Seemed he had to go pretty badly too,” Kalu raised his eyebrows in emphasis. 

“Did he seem in pain afterwards?” Melendez asked, joining Team Worried About Shaun by impulse.

“I wouldn’t know, didn’t see him after. But I listened, just for fun. Didn’t sound like he was hurt. _Very relieved_ , though,” Jared laughed. 

Claire nodded in understanding. It explained his odd behaviour. He was shuffling on the ground because he couldn’t hold himself in his gown. The reluctance to raise his legs was because it would open up the _hatch_ , and his indecision about whether it was the coffee, meant he probably drank more than just coffee before the operation. It technically wasn’t the coffee. Not _only that_.

At least he still sucked at lying. 

* * *

Jared wasn’t at all fazed by Shaun’s behaviour, the previous day. Back in England, surgeries were more efficient, making the circumstance of needing to go during them, relatively common. While at his particular hospital, there were enough awkward British Doctors to make it necessary for colleagues to remind each other to go beforehand, via subtle references to the urinary system. It was like code. Neither the recipient nor the provider of such advice ever openly mentioned the reason behind the banter. The Brit had no doubt how to help Shaun. The same way he’d been helped at the start. 

He entered the preparation area, seeing Shaun already washing his hands. Since he was joining the same operation, he went to wash his hands as well. Then, he startled Shaun.

“You know how catheters are really long?” Jared mentioned casually. 

“Yes,” Shaun stated, not really caring why they were having a conversation. 

“Well, it has nothing to do with the length of the patient’s penis. It’s meant to be able to reach the edge of a distended full bladder, since the natural funnel effect of urine,” Jared made a gesture and a watery noise for narrative effect. “Doesn’t happen when the bladder is deformed,” he explained. 

The story also had a biological effect on Shaun. 

“I need to urinate” he excused himself, walking into the small ensuite toilet. Jared nodded in satisfaction. 

“That happens, when you hear a **good story** ,” he muttered, walking into the OR with a smile. 

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so apparently none of you use Google, so here's a dictionary for your convenience: 
> 
> **vertebra** \- the bones in your back AKA your spine. _Invertebrates_ don't have spines.
> 
>  **internal/external sphincter** \- the urethra(pee tube) has two major muscles, the external sphincter, which you control, keeping urine in; while the internal sphincter, which is a skeletal muscle, controls the opening between the bladder and the urethra, and is controlled by the autonomic nervous system( _not_ you). 
> 
> **coagulant** \- when the blood turns solid upon contact with air, it _coagulates_. A coagulant induces this process in a stuffy operation room, since with an unconscious patient, who may or may not have something wrong with their hearts and circulatory systems, the blood might not coagulate on its own. FYI: surgeries= fountains of blood
> 
>  **pons** ( _bridge_ in Latin)- this is an organ in the brainstem. It controls various involuntary actions, including urination. It has two parts, which are responsible for this; the pontine micturition center(micturate is a fancy science word for _pee_ ) and the pontine storage area. the former causes you to pee your pants if not already in front of a toilet, while the latter prevents it. 
> 
> **catheter** : a tube used by patients in hospitals to allow them to pee without getting up. 
> 
> **distended bladder** : if you hold in your pee for too long, then pee in the wrong position, or you have a tumor near your bladder, it gets misshapen, which hurts when it's full.


End file.
